


light

by jilylicious



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Hanukkah, Hogwarts, Jewish Remus Lupin, M/M, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), jily, wolfstar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:27:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28365402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jilylicious/pseuds/jilylicious
Summary: Remus never thought Hanukkah at Hogwarts could come close to the ones he had at home and he had never been more wrong in his entire life
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Remus Lupin & Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black & Remus Lupin & Peter Pettigrew & James Potter, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 6
Kudos: 26
Collections: Wolfnoote





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**Author's Note:**

  * For [letsdothepanic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/letsdothepanic/gifts).



“For fuck’s sake,” said an exasperated Peter to his two other friends. “I will repeat the rules one last time and if you two gits don’t pay attention again, I will shove my wand up your arses. Deal?”

“Deal!” replied James and Sirius and both sat down and listened to Peter intently. They weren’t so sure about the _shoving_ part but they were running out of time and that could be dealt with another time.

“There are four sides to the dreidel and we will each spin it when it’s our turn,” he began, holding up a dice, that wasn’t really a dice, with a stick on top. James and Sirius were very new to Muggle things but they had gotten accustomed to most of them. Religion, though, was taking a toll on their brilliant minds. “The four sides are _nun, gimel, hei_ and _shin_ and each tells you what you should do with your objects. Now, because this is Remus we are talking about we will play this with candies and chocolate.”

“ _Obviously_ ,” snickered the boys sitting on The Common Room floor.

“Alright,” grinned Peter in response and span the dreidel in his palm. “After we each put one candy in the pot in the middle, first person spins the dreidel and if they get _nun_ , they do nothing… it sounds like _none_ , you can remember that, _right_?”

“Oh piss off, Wormy,” objected Sirius, throwing his hands in the air. “We aren’t idiots!”

“Then why am I explaining a game with four rules for the third time then?” asked Peter and both boys went silent. Peter’s scolds sometimes reminded James of his mothers’ and all of his smart comebacks escaped him. “That’s what I thought. This here is _gimel_ and it sounds like _gimme_ which should help you remember that the person who spins _gimel_ gets everything in the pot. Next we have _hei,_ which sounds nothing like half but they share their first letter and the person who spins _hei_ gets half of what’s in the pot. Finally we have _shin_ , which means the spinner should put one of their objects in the pot. If a person runs out of objects, they are out. Are we clear?”

“Yes,” said both of them and then James’ hand shot up like he was in Transfiguration class. “But h—”

“I have already memorised the shapes, so did Lily,” replied Peter before James could finish his question. “We are all set.”

The Menorah had been lit in The Common Room for three days now. Remus had been doing this since his second year, after he had gotten comfortable with his friends. Before that, especially because Hogwarts didn’t have a feast or days off for Hanukkah, it felt like something else he needed to hide. It was Peter who realised him getting mail for eight straight days before Christmas. Being raised in a Catholic family, Peter was surprisingly aware of other religions and their traditions. Sirius and James knew about Christmas and only about Christmas when it came to any religious traditions. Not that they knew what they were celebrating, they just liked the lights, the huge trees and the feast that came with it. The concept of religion never felt normal to them but they never kept their best friends from following their traditions. Dumbledore had set up huge Menorah in The Great Hall which he lit himself every day after Sirius and James pestered McGonagall about it for days in their third year. It made Remus feel a bit more accepted and it helped other Jewish students in Hogwarts feel more at home during holidays since they couldn’t go back to their families to celebrate Hanukkah like they got used to.

The idea to have a full on Hanukkah celebration was Sirius’ idea because although they had watched Remus light the candles every night with his songs that they couldn’t understand, they had actually never celebrated Hanukkah like they celebrated Christmas. It was their sixth year and no one knew what next year would bring, Sirius wanted to make sure Remus had some fun in between all these dark times.

“Did you know there is a Muggle cookbook in the library?” said Peter biting into an apple, going through the pages of the thick book in front of him. “There are _several_ actually.”

“I think they use them in Muggle Studies, Petey,” chimed in Lily, looking up from the Potions book in her lap. It was nice to have Lily around for the boys now that they got along with James, she brought in some much needed logic to their small group.

“But does it have a latke recipe in it?” asked James as he looked at the book over Peter. “And the donuts?”

“It does Jamie!” assured Peter as he closed the book and made his way out of The Common Room. “I will be in the kitchens with my house elf friends who don’t pester me every five minutes if you need me.”

“What gives James?” asked Lily with a grin after The Common Room’s huge door closed.

“What do you mean?”

“Why are you more nervous than Remus’ actual boyfriend?”

“We never do anything for Remus and I want this to be something he will remember rather than the last full moon,” babbled James, playing with his hair. “I _need_ him to have happy thoughts. Did you know he can’t form a full Patronus?”

“I knew before you lot,” answered Lily. “You three do so much for Remus and he is very thankful for that. You can’t save him from everything, sometimes some things are _enough_ and that’s that.”

“But I--"

“Enjoy tonight for Remus’ sake,” she cut him off. “We all need some games and fried food in our lives. Just _enjoy_ your best friend’s celebration.”

“I will,” smiled James and ran his hand through his hair as he did. “Thanks, Evans.”

“You’re welcome, Potter.”

Marauders had done everything in their power to keep Remus from The Common Room after dinner. McGonagall had been a gift for this mission, she called Remus for tea every now and then and Sirius had made sure today Remus got called by Minerva after dinner. He wouldn’t arrive until 9.30 pm. They had half an hour left and Peter was nowhere to be seen. Lily had charmed some candles to float in The Common Room ceiling. The room was fairly empty except for some third years. It was around 9.15 when James and Sirius brought down all the gifts they had gotten for Remus. He was supposed to open four of them for four nights that had passed and the rest after each candle he lit. Most of the gifts were warm sweaters and beanies, his last gift was a beautiful quill Sirius had come across during one of their visits to Hogsmeade. They had decided to place the gifts under the Christmas tree to surprise Remus with them. When they were putting the gifts, Peter walked in with two huge plates of fried food.

“If my grandma finds out I cooked latkes for Hanukkah, she might have an aneurism,” he pointed out before carefully placing the plates on the table in front of the chimney. The donuts were leaking jam and smelled heavenly, while the latkes’ crisp pieces shone golden in the candle light. “I have charmed them to stay warm.”

“You’re the best Wormy!” exclaimed Sirius before giving the smaller boy a high five. “Ah, these look so good, we should have done this every year.”

“Don’t. _Touch_.” warned Peter with a look that made Sirius take a step back from the plates. “Remus will taste them first or on God, I will hex you.”

“Alright Wormy,” he said with his hands held up. “I won’t touch them, promise.”

“Thanks, I have never been this nervous about something I cooked,” Peter confessed, now that the others had a look at him, his pants were covered in flour and his eyes looked tired. “I swear I can’t cook under stress.”

Just when Sirius and James were about to object Peter, they heard The Common Room door open. It was 9.30 pm, like clockwork, Remus had arrived.

“Why does it smell like.. LATKES!” he threw himself to the table where the plates stayed warm and dipped one of the crispy latkes into the apple sauce before shoving it into his mouth ungracefully. “Where did you find these?! It’s _almost_ as good as home made.”

“Well I—I made them,” mumbled Peter. “I used this cookbook in the library and I don’t know how original the recipe is but..”

“They are really, really good, Wormtail,” smiled Remus and gestured to his friends. “Aren’t you at least going to taste it? You made sufganiyots, too!”

“Peter forbade us to taste them before you had a chance,” grinned James and picked up a latke to follow what Remus just had done. “Well aren’t you going to ask what all this is about Moony?”

“Yeah, sorry,” he laughed in response. “When I saw the food, I lost my ability to think for a moment there. What is going on? I mean not that I don’t appreciate this or anything, but still, it’s out of the ordinary for us to have latkes even if it is Hanukkah.”

“You know we have watched to celebrate this for five years now,” explained Sirius walking towards his boyfriend. “We realised…”

“ _Sirius_ realised,” corrected Lily from where she was watching the commotion.

“Well, _I_ realised that we never participated in the actual traditions of Hanukkah,” he continued with his white cheeks turning red. “So I thought this year we could research and maybe give you a Hanukkah like your family used to when you were home during the celebrations.”

“Padfoot,” smiled Remus as he got up and then he gave his boyfriend a very long, and uncomfortable for others to watch, kiss on the lips. “Thank you.”

“Ah you’re welcome,” he replied softly, slightly drunk from the kiss he just received. “ _Ooh_ , Wormtail the applesauce tastes nice.”

They all laughed at Sirius’ joke before digging into Peter’s latkes and donuts. In mere minutes, they had all eaten more than it was necessary and were dispersed across the sofas and chairs in The Common Room.

“That was heavenly!” exclaimed Remus as he rubbed his belly. Even with his thin and lanky body, you could see a small belly after all the fried food they ate. Sirius got up from his seat next to the werewolf and picked four of the gifts from under the tree.

“These are for the three nights we missed and for tonight,” he explained and dropped the packages right next to Remus. “I guess you need to light the candle before you open your gifts.”

“Yes,” he said, his eyes shining so bright in the candle light. “Yes, I do.”

Remus then moved onto the grand table where the Menorah was sitting with three candles lit. He slowly took the candle in the middle and let its light touch the fourth candle which was aflame in seconds. Remus was murmuring in the foreign language to himself again, singing like he always did when he lit the candles. When he came back to the sofa, he looked visibly relaxed and at peace, even his scars seemed less apparent.

“Consider we each bought a gift for the past four days,” said James with a smile. “One from me, one from Evans, one from Wormtail and obviously one from Pads.”

“You guys shouldn’t have,” said Remus bashfully. “My parents were sending me gifts for each day already.”

“We know, we know,” laughed Lily from where she was sitting. “But your celebration here with us deserves presents from who you’re celebrating _with_.”

“Thank you,” he smiled as he started to unwrap one of the gifts. “This was an amazing night of Hanukkah celebration. Thank you for working so hard to make this happen.”

“We’re not done yet,” smiled Peter as he pulled the dreidel out of his pocket.

“Is that… _a dreidel_?”

“Yup!”

“Where did you get one Wormy?”

“I actually willed it so hard,” gushed Peter with a grin. “The Room of Requirements basically became a dreidel.”

“I don’t…” sighed Remus as he was opening his last present, it looked like a dark red cardigan made from a _very_ soft material. “I don’t know how to play it.”

“What? _Why?_ ” asked Sirius incredulously, he felt like he had done something wrong while trying to prepare the most perfect night for Remus.

“You see, when I was old enough to understand what traditions are,” he whispered as he checked around him to make sure they were alone. “I already had _the fluffy little problem_. I didn’t have friends, let alone Jewish ones to play this with and my parents never bothered.”

“ _Oh…_ ”

“Doesn’t mean I can’t learn!” he exclaimed with a laugh, trying to lighten to mood back to how it was before the dreidel was out.

“I mean it took these two gits _three_ explanations,” complained Peter and won himself a soft smack on the head from James.

“Pete can you pass me the dreidel?”

“Sure, mate.”

Remus turned it over in his hand and looked at the four markings on each side of the dreidel.

“I know the meanings of these but I don’t know how it works,” he said as he gave it back to Peter. “I am pretty sure there is some give and take involved but I need you to explain me the rules.”

“We bought an obscene amount of candy and chocolate to play this,” announced Peter as James pulled out a bag from under the tree. “We will all have 15 objects, in our case candies, to start with and every time we spin, we do what the dreidel tells us to. Here let’s try for the first round. Everyone get 15 pieces and place one of them in the middle.”

They sat in a circle in front of the fireplace and placed one candy in the middle. After that Remus span the dreidel. Peter explained what each side meant before the dreidel settled on _gimel_.

“Yes!” shouted Remus in victory as he collected all five pieces in the middle. Then it was Sirius’ turn who span _shin_ and put a chocolate frog in the middle. By the sixth round James was running low on objects as Lily and Remus were fighting for the crown. Peter and Sirius were putting up a fair fight but the redhead and the werewolf were way ahead. They played until late into the night until the two were left spinning the dreidel back and forth until Lily gave up. Remus was smiling as he hadn’t smiled in a long time.

“It’s my celebration,” he snickered to a seemingly cool but frustrated Lily. “I can win if I want to.”

“I think I lost because I ate half the chocolates I had as objects,” said James, grinning ear to ear. “How come you didn’t eat any of them Moony?”

“The self-control it took was incredible,” he laughed. “But one could say I am pretty good at self-control when I want to. Now.. shall we?”

With that question, he pushed all the candy and chocolate he had collected during the game back in the middle and grabbed the closest Honeydukes chocolate he could find.

“This was amazing, lads,” he raved and gave his boyfriend a chocolate-y kiss on the cheeks. “Thanks for making me feel at home… and for the gifts! And for the chocolate! Shall we meet again tomorrow night for the fifth night’s festivities?”

All four of them nodded excitedly in response before they slowly got up from the floor to make their way to their dormitories.

“I want more latkes though, Wormy,” he joked as they climbed the stairs slowly. “They were divine.”

“I would say your wish is my command but that shit was so stressful,” Peter replied back as he patted his best friend’s back softly. “But for you, I can live through that hell again.”

“Pads you never do these kinds of sacrifices for me,” he laughed as he grabbed Sirius’ hand and squeezed softly.

Their voices slowly disappeared into the night and The Common Room was empty again as it was every night. The lights of the five candles shone bright in the otherwise dark room. The candles in the ceiling Lily had charmed had gone away after she had left the room. In all the dark days they were going through, this day had been like the Menorah in The Common Room’s darkness; a source of light that became stronger each day. A day they would remember in the coming months when they felt like happiness was slipping away from them and it’s memory would only get stronger as they would talk about how much fun they had had that fourth night of Hanukkah that year.


End file.
